Grace and Poise With Maserati Gran Turismo
Posted by admin in Classic Cars on 07/14/2011
Maserati’s third offspring in the Trident series is the Gran Turismo S Automatic. It is a perfect combination of the 433hp, 32-valve, Ferrari V8 engine along with an automated 6-speed ZF gearbox.
It is a modified version of the earlier Gran Turismo, both in its functionality and looks. The wheels with the state-of-the-art flow-formed cast aluminum rims are sure to be noticed on the streets. Adding to its fury is the prominent rocker panels which seem like burning fire while on the go. The interior face-lifts are also varied with a new range of leather colors to choose from. The wood and metal textures in the interior have also been improved than its earlier versions.
Drive away in style with this Y speed rated sports car. Make sure that you have a look at your tachometer, at 7500rpm redline, you are on the roll. Maximum torque is attained at 3000 rpm till 7000 rpm. If you are looking for a valid reason to replace your Ferrari for a GT, then you should sure consider its gusto factor. It’s better than a Ferrari due to its wet-sump lubrication, restricted valve timing and 90-degree crankshaft. Go on and compete with Porsche or Ferrari, and Maserati’s Gran Turismo will never let you down. Even at the maximum speed, the engine maintains its matured and tuned tone without howling or growling. This has been made possible with its tuned engine pipes, mufflers and the X-shaped pipe connectors.
Rebuilt with superior Italian modeling technology, the new Gran Turismo has broken apart the GT drive line tradition of attaching the gearbox to the final-drive through a rear-mounted transaxle. In this new edition GT S, the automatic gearbox is integrated directly to the V8 engine. To keep up to the tradition, the model still maintains its classical most loved attributes. Maserati has stuck to the favorite GT aluminium pedals with its textured surfaces and lightening holes. Leather finish vinyl has been used to style the interior instrument panels for that rich and classy look. Slight modifications have been made to the Maserati Media System, to keep up to the trend. It has been upgraded with a satellite for radio reception, Bluetooth mobile connectivity, better navigation display for traffic information and a cable port. Read the rest of this entry »
Classic Cars – The Audi Quattro
Posted by admin in Classic Cars on 07/14/2011
The year was 1980 and Gary Numan’s Cars was at the top of the Music charts. In Britain at the time and throughout Europe, fast cars and so called ‘Yuppys’ were the order of the day in what becoming an increasingly competitive and socially divided world, prior to the technological advances brought by the infant information age.
At the Geneva Motor Show in March that year a car was revealed that was to technically change the future design of most road cars – The Audi Quattro.
The four-wheeled drive turbocharged road car, rally car and angular designed coupe, stole the show and proved that Audi with the new Quattro really had made ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’ a massive advancement through technology.
The original or Ur Quattro as it became known, as opposed to subsequent quattro models with a small q, was not the first 4×4 road car; this honour is held by the Jensen FF.
However the innovative four-wheel drive system that Audi developed for the Quattro, did away with all the previous problems of additional driveshafts and extra weight. The Quattro team had produced a practical solution that amazed the motoring world of the day and led the way for the development of all modern 4×4 road cars.
Audi in the 1970′s was not the most avant garde of the stoic German manufacturers, however they had a young and enthusiastic research and development team and more importantly, since 1969 the financial backing of owner Volkswagen, which was needed for the Audi Quattro to be born.
The seeds of the Quattro had sprouted three years before the car was launched in 1977 when chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger and a team of Audi engineers were visiting Northern Scandinavia to evaluate the performance of another Audi car, the front wheeled drive 100 series saloons.
While there, Bensinger was highly impressed by the performance of a protype of Volkswagen’s Iltis military vehicle which was also being tested under extreme conditions.
The Iltis had new four-wheel drive technology and superb handling which easily outmaneuvered all competition in the snow and ice.
Jörg Bensinger was impressed and on his return to the Audi factory at Ingolstadt, with the encouragement of Walter Treser, a former rally driver and head of advanced development at Audi, in March 1978 the Quattro project commenced.
The Quattro design team started out by taking the worlds first 5 cylinder engine from the highly successful turbocharged 170 mph Audi 200, which was in parallel development at the time.
To the 2144 cc engine the team added a single overhead camshaft with two valves per cylinder, which boosted the engines output to 200 bhp at 5500 rpm.
This gave the Audi Quattro a top speed of 137 mph and the car could do 0 to 60 mph in just 7 seconds.
What took the world by storm though was not the power of the engine but the ingenious configuration of the new four-wheel drive system. Based on the Iltris concept, the design reconfigured the transmission and did away with the cumbersome and heavy traditional transfer box and driveshaft.
The Quattro team took the new engine and mounted it on the car in line, rather than in the usual transverse layout of the time. This allowed the gearbox to be attached to the back of the engine in a usual rear wheel drive manner. On the Quattro, power was transmitted through the gearbox in the usual manner, to a small grapefruit sized differential box immediately to the rear. From there it was conveyed by a typical rear axle. Read the rest of this entry »